The Mulligan Guard Ball

Edward “Ned” Harrigan and Tony Hart were the first team to offer plays with music populated by newly arrived immigrants living in the slums of New York. They began their series of shows about the Irish Mulligan Guard in 1878, and in all did seven productions featuring the drinking, brawling members of the social and military club. In this production, their most popular, they were concerned with the rivalry between the Mulligan Guard and a Negro group, the Skidmore Guard, who, through an error, both engage the Harp and Shamrock Ballroom for a social affair on the same night. A compromise of sorts is reached when the Skidmore group is given a room on the second floor right above the ballroom, but their dancing becomes so animated that they crash through the floor and land on top of the celebrating Mulligans. This was the first production to play the Theatre Comique, then located on lower Broadway, and the top ticket price was 750¢. Harrigan’s use of working-class Americans as characters in his stories influenced the work of Charles H. Hoyt and George M. Cohan.

Music

David Braham

Lyrics

Edward Harrigan

Book

Edward Harrigan